Hunched over a coffee at a Midtown Manhattan Starbucks, Ammar Hamidou describes how Syria’s revolution spiraled out of control before his eyes. Hamidou, who fled the country last year and now works in New York as a computer developer, was one of the first to take to the streets in his hometown of Kafranbel, in the northwest, in early 2011. But with regime aircraft pummeling his town and al-Qaeda-linked fighters periodically overrunning Kafranbel to kidnap civil-society activists like himself, the 29-year-old finagled a visa to the U.S. and escaped.
His family and girlfriend remain in Syria, but he says there is no role for him there anymore.
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